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Please let me know what you're planning on reading in the comments. 

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19 Books to be Read in 2021

BUY HERE: 1. Dante's Inferno / Ciardi: https://amzn.to/2LYf1Ez 2. The Wisdom of Life by Schopenhauer: https://amzn.to/3cbqDPr 3. I Used to Be Charming by Eve Babitz: https://amzn.to/366Dmig 4. Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig: https://amzn.to/2NmgLHY 5. The Master and the Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov: https://amzn.to/39ZyOLM 6. The Collected Short Stories of Amy Hempel: https://amzn.to/3sNPZsh 7. I Am Dynamite! by Sue Prideux: https://amzn.to/3obaPyn 8. Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz: https://amzn.to/3pcnGBK 9. The Glass Bees by Ernst Jünger: https://amzn.to/363Hy2w 10. The Obscene Bird of Night by Jose Doñoso: https://amzn.to/3cbr7Ff 11. Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia: https://amzn.to/2Y4xMso 12. The Magus by John Fowles: https://amzn.to/364ieco 13. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner: https://amzn.to/366qhpr 14. Occupation Journal by Jean Giono: https://amzn.to/3c4lWGN 15. Blindness by Jose Saramago: https://amzn.to/3c1GLmt 16. My Week Without Gerard by Ivan Boris: https://morbidbooks.net/shop/my-week-without-gerard/ 17. Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me by Richard Fariña: https://amzn.to/2Y8QYp2 18.Demons by Dostoyevsky: https://amzn.to/3peod65 19. The Sea by John Banville: https://amzn.to/3c8juPE SUPPORT / PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/booksarebetterthanfood INSTAGRAM: @booksarebetterthanfood https://www.instagram.com/booksarebetterthanfood MUG: https://www.zazzle.com/better_than_food_coffee_mug-168249045611119837

Comments

Connor Smith

Re: Bulgakov -- they're called deckled edges!

Gareth Sykes

Where to begin? So, in no particular order some of my reads planned for this year: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison Russian Roulette: the life and times of Graham Greene by Richard Greene (no relation) Essays by George Orwell The secret agent by Joseph Conrad The snow leopaed by Peter Mathiessen (a re-read) Roadside picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky Breakout at stalingrad by Heinrich Gerlach The origins of totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt The sorrow of war by Bao Ninh Mindf##k by Christopher Wylie The long goodbye by Raymond Chandler On the beach by Neil Shute And many more besides. Hopefully.

Marjorie Dieudonne

Books I plan to read in 2021- The Divine Comedy by Dante, Dancing with Myself- Billy Idol, Oskar Schindler by David M. Crowe, Cujo by Stephen King, World In My Eyes by Richard Blade, Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain, New York Rock by Steven Blush, Please Kill Me: Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil, Hollywood Godfather: My Life in the Movies and the Mob by Gianni Russo with Patrick Picciarelli, and The Boys of '67: Charlie Company's War in Vietnam

Jeffrey Jackson

I’m reading Clarissa by Samuel Richardson and The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. Those 2 books alone at a combined 2845 pages will probably take all of 2021. Also you have me wanting to read Gravity’s Rainbow. I’ve always heard mixed reviews for it. But you have me wanting to give it a shot. I really hope you get to As I Lay Dying. It’s incredible.

Sweeney in the Trees

Do you have a PO box or similar Cliff? I'd love to send you a book or two. As for Sterling I'd recommend 'The Difference Engine' which he co-authored with Gibson.

Gene Crash

I plan on reading 50 books this year. I already have 3 down and it is soon to be 5. Wish me luck everyone! And Been Down so Long it Looks Like Up to Me is on the list.

Matthew F.

I've got a lot of stuff I'm hoping to get to in 2021, but the big daddy of the year is gonna be Proust's In Search of Lost Time. Planning to start that up next month. Excited and scared.

Nicholas Carlucci

Thank you for the awesome shout out man. Now the assault on my Amazon account begins. Thanks man.

Sadie Sarrazin

Excellent list! Lovely video, as always. Quite the ambitious to be read pile, but I approve! ☺️I just have a few on my list for 2021: Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin; The Year of Magical Thinking & Blue Nights by Joan Didion; The Road by Cormac McCarthy; The Plague by Albert Camus; A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle; The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson; The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood; Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag. Some of these are way overdue. Hope to correct these errors in the new year. Happy reading! 📚❤️

Sadie Sarrazin

Additional note regarding John Fowles: I haven’t read The Magus, but I’ve heard it’s a damn trip. I adore Fowles’ first novel, The Collector. It’s one of my favorites and I think it’s a masterpiece. As I Lay Dying is brilliant! Such a gorgeous, haunting, and disturbing novel. Can’t wait for your review!

theMadDoctor

Woo hoo! I won! I'm reading JT Coetzee's 'Disgrace' right now. I want to read this year: Dante's Purgatory (I've read Inferno about 5 times. Yes its that good). John Crowley's 'Little, Big' "... literally the most enchanting twentieth century book I know" - Harold Bloom Marcus Aurelius 'Meditations' Abraham Joshua Heschel 'Man is not alone' Carlos Fuentes 'Aura' Hikaru Okuizumi 'The Stones Cry Out' William Faulkner 'As I Lay Dying' Stendhal 'The Charterhouse of Parma' Marcel Schwob 'The Children's Crusade' I'm a programmer so I need to leave room for reading tech books

Hannah Gray

Great list! This year I'm really excited to get to Corregidora by Gayl Jones, a novel about a 1940s blues singer which has a great reveiw on the backlisted podcast (also a great podcast), Minor Detail by Adania Shibli, The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector, Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion and the new translation of Beowulf by Maria Dahvana Headley which sounds amazing. Also that copy of The Master and Margartia looks incredible, enjoy!

Connor Lane

My TBR - Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky, The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass, The Glass Bead Game by Hermann Hesse, Gravity’s Rainbow by Pynchon, One Hundred Years of Solitude by Marquez, Spring Snow, After the Banquet, Life For Sale and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima. I also want to get to some Nietzsche this year, I have three of his major works. Would like to read more of From Hell by Alan Moore. I’m looking forward to Beyond Order by Jordan Peterson and The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe, which is getting a rerelease by Penguin.

Jon Sanders

Just finished The Stoner so planning to read all John’s other novels this year. In Search of Lost Time, 2666, Bleak House and Blood Meridian are on the docket every year, so hoping I get to them this time around.

Donald Wright

Hmm. I read Banville's The Sea a few years ago, and had somewhat contradictory feelings about it. It's one of the most beautifully written novels, with magnificent use of language, that I've ever encountered. It reminds me somewhat of Proust (all the memories) and Woolf (having something of the aimlessness of To the Lighthouse). Most of the characters were depicted as rather unpleasant and self-involved; and Banville seemed contemptuous of human foibles, masking that perhaps by having his (anti-)hero Max do all the pejorative analyses of his friends, acquaintances, and family. I wondered whether Max's surname "Morden" was a bit of a play on words (Mord being German for "murder"). I haven't read another Banville since, but I want to.

Darius

This is the plan: The old Nietzsche: The birth of tragedy Hunter S. Thompson: Fear and loathing in Las Vegas J.M. Coetzee: The school days of Jesus Thomas Pynchon: Vineland Max Frisch: Diary 1946-1949 Robert Seethaler: Der letzte Satz (don't know if there already is an English edition on the market) Don DeLillo: Underworld ...and surely a lot of pearls on the way.

Ian Ellis

The next two for me (depending on school/work) - Call Me By Your Name and No Longer Human. Looking forward to both of them greatly.

Zane Dilts

Some of mine for the upcoming year: - The Magic Mountain by Mann - Kaputt by Curzio Malparte - Globalists by Quinn Slobodian - To the Lighthouse - Moby Dick Also hoping to finally read something by Dostoevsky, Agatha Christie, and John le Carre. Some pretty big blindspots for me. I ended up clocking in 76 books last year, which means I mostly didn't make time for thicc books. Hoping to change that this year and sink my teeth into some real lengthy reads. Can't wait for your Magus review Cliff! It's one of my favorites. I still think about it all the time, would look some recommendations from others for books like it!

Derrik

Dissipatio H.G.: The Vanishing , Morselli La Guerre, Yes Sir!, Carrier The Outsider, Wilson Blood Dark, Guilloux Havoc, Kristensen Independent People, Laxness The Stammering Century, Seldes Naked Masks, Pirandello The Double, Saramago

Alex Namzoff

Reading seratonin now based on your recommendation. just finished whatever by houellebecq which was awesome. also planning on getting death to the bullshit artists of south texas. just finished flores' novel tears of the trufflepig, highly recommend that one. that also lead me to juan pablo villalobos, read his book quesadillas which was awesome and planning to read more of his work and see where this latin american surrealistish train leads.

Leon Jurdzinski

I'm currently finishing Min Kamp Part 3. Got parts 4, 5 and 6 waiting. After that probably somehting "lighter". Still wanna do Now And On Earth by Jim Thompson. After that I'll probably finish 2666 by Bolano and A Little Life by Yanagihara. The Orchard Keeper by McCarthy needs also to be finished. Can't wait for any of those! Highly recomended!

Tyler Blankenship

Great picks as always! Personally I’m rather fluvial when it comes to my TBR but I know for sure I’m gonna stick with my readings of Mishima(Thirst for Love, Forbidden Colors, and The Sea of Fertility) and Bolaño(2666, The Return, and Amulet). I also plan on starting to read Baldwin(currently reading Giovanni’s Room), Virginia Woolf(Orlando), Toni Morrison( Beloved), and read the collection “The Classics of Marxism: Volume One”.

Rob Renstrom

Re: Bruce Sterling, Schismatrix and The Difference Engine (co-written with Gibson) are dense, fascinating novels.

Danielle Vierra

Ambitious! And thanks for the inspiration! Gotta add a note for you re: Master & Margarita. I took a College study tour to Russia this book was one of our topics and became an all time fav for me - a fascinating side note is that almost all(or all) the locations in the book are real. Patriarchs Park etc. we were able to visit an apt building that supposedly was a location in the book and had become a cult hang out where people graffitied the walls inside w/scenes and characters from the story!!

LUCIA DE LA SERNA

My tbr this year has 70 books. May be i'll read all, may be not, that's not really important, it's more a route map for my readings. It includes Ursula K. Le Guin, Bioy Casares, Dostoyewsky, Chris Abani, Elena Garro, Maria Tsvetaieva, Virginia Woolf, Anne Carson, Maria Luisa Bombal, Zadie Smith, Ismail Kadaré (such a wonderful author, and very unknow), Maria Fernanda Ampuero, Marguerite Yourcenar, Annie Ernaux, Liao Yiwu, Mariana Enriquez, Jules Michelet, Marcelo d'Salete, Miguel Leon Portilla, Sylvia Plath, Angela Davis, Silvia Federici, Primo Levy, Ian McEwan and others.

MegNG

I love Master and Margarita and it always makes me happy to see people reading Bulgakov! I plan reading South American authors (Donoso is in my list as well) and indigenous peoples, because sometimes I think I wandered too far away from home for too long. This is the year to read some recs from BTF like Sade, Artaud, Jelinek and maybe Cioran if I'm feeling happy enough.

Kyle

A public burning- Robert Coover Memed,my hawk-yasar kemal Cobra- severo sarduay La comemadre- roque larraquy On elegance while sleeping- emillio lascano tegui Ancient history: a paraphrase Joseph McElroy Girlfriend,ghost & other stories- Robert Walser The plain in flames- Juan rulfo The way of Florida: a novel russel persson Die,my love: Ariana Harwicz A violent life by pier paolo Pasolini

Han Laden

Got loads on my to-be-read list: The Sacred and the Profane - Mircea Eliade Dhammapadda - unknown Baghavad Gita - unknown Drawn and Quartered - E.M Cioran Straw Dogs - John Gray The Ego Tunnel - Thomas Metzinger This Life - Martin Hägglund I’ll definitely get around to more Cioran and some nietzsche as well. Throw in some Javier Marias and I think I’m set for a while

Aaron Facer

My books to tackle this year are - Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea W.S. Graham - Collected Poems Ismail Kadare - The Traitor's Niche Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Idiot Joseph Conrad - Nostromo Henry James - The Beast in the Jungle Matthew Bellamy - Looking Backward 2000-1887 Nisha Ramayya - States of the Body Produced by Love W.H. Auden - Poems Selected by John Fuller Paul Muldoon - The Annals of Chile Italo Calvino - The Complete Cosmicomics Joan Didion - Slouching Towards Bethlehem 2020 was actually a pretty good reading year for me, so we'll see how I get on with these

superclodclod

Anna Karinina by Tolstoy, The World as Will and Representation by Schopenhauer, The Age of Revolution by Eric Hobsbaum, Karl Marx: A 19th Century Life, by Jonathan Sperber, Pet Sematary by Stephen King, Complete Poems by Dorothy Parker, The Idiot by Dostoevsky, Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy, Collected Stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Paula by Isabel Allende, From Socrates to Sartre by TZ Lavine, For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway,